coming. Few independent thinkers canrnshrug off the fact that the WesternrnEuropean multicultural experiment withrn16 million non-Europeans may be settingrnthe fuse for a titanic Balkan powderrnkeg. The wisdom of aged politicallyrnincorrect conservatives, such as Browning,rnBurke, and Benoist, seems to bernunexpectedly gaining ground over inveteraternhistorical optimism and its prematurernapostles of the end of history.rnHard times are returning, as AleksanderrnSolzhenitsyn has warned, and, veryrnlikely, Europe and America must expectrnnothing from nobody: neither from theirrnown atomized peoples nor from theirrndistant, departed gods.rnAt issue in the new New Right controversyrnis the future of Europe after thernbreakdown of communism, on the onernhand, and the persistent cracks in thernliberal idea of progress, on the other.rnThe European New Right, with manyrnother European thinkers from both eirdsrnof the political spectrum, claims that thernpost-Cold War world can no longer berngauged by means of old ideologicalrncliches. The rise of the Zhirinovsky syndromernin Russia, the neocommunistrntemptation in traditionally anticommunistrnPoland and Lithuania, the appealrnof historicism among growing numbersrnof German scholars, require a differentrnapproach to political reality—an approachrnthat goes beyond traditional leftandrnright-wing Manichaeism, Accordingly,rnpolitical and ideological affinitiesrnhave been realigned. Scores of formerrnEast European communist apparatchiksrnseem to have found a decent abode in arnnew brand of petty nationalism. Manyrnhave also converted to politically correctrnliberalism, grotesquely trying to provernthat they are more American than thernAmerican political class. As far as Erenchrnintellectuals are concerned, they haverndecided, some time ago, to quit the Maornpass and slide straight into the RotaryrnClub. Everybody, all over the Westernrnhemisphere, is looking for new value systemsrnin an old and disenchanted worldrnof new unpredictability. The recentrnvogue in geopolitics at many Europeanrnuniversities is confirming time and againrnthat theologies and ideologies come andrngo, but rude geographic reality alwaysrnremains a nation’s destiny. Europe isrnagain in the foreplay phase of a new globalrncrisis, and current disputes amongrnEuropean intellectuals are like minorrnpolitical necking before inevitable hardcorernaction.rnBeyond the issue of fascism, which isrnfalsely tied to the European New Right,rnthere is a matter of principle that thernpolitically correct European scribes cannotrnswallow. They cannot tolerate thernEuropean New Right’s refusal of any sortrnof intellectual prostitution, in which therndivine left has for decades avidly excelled.rnSuffice it to cast a furtive glancernon the pedigree of Benoist’s detractors.rnMost of them began their careers in thern1950’s as avid brown-nosers of the commissarrnZhdanov—only to become todayrnthe vocal disciples of the fun-manrnJoe McCarthy. The Erench divine left isrnusing the generic term “fascism” torndiscredit its real and surreal enemies,rndespite the fact that it itself contributedrnto the rise of fascism in World War IIrnErance. Its political gadgetrv had tornbe replaced, and consequently the oldrnleftist emperor had to switch to newrnpolitically correct clothes. From jeansrnand joints he switched to Cartier andrnCoke; he abruptly exchanged rustedrnKalashnikovs for more digestible caviar;rnhe has traded in the muscled ideologyrnof the gulag for the soft ideology of multiculturalism.rnIndeed, a strange paradox now exists;rnthe American traditional right, as well asrnits more dynamic counterpart the EuropeanrnNew Right, appears to be more onrnthe left today than those who claimedrnuntil yesterday the monopoly of the left.rnThe so-called American paleoconservativesrnas well as the so-called Europeanrnrightists are on the left insofar as theyrnrepresent the new force fighting forrnsubstantive intellectual change andrnthe radical exit from politically correctrnself-censorship. By contrast, the divinernleft, which once flirted with Marx, isrnhopelessly grounded as a reactionaryrnsediment of past illusions. It pompouslyrnclaims that multicultural happinessrnlies around the corner, although titanicrnethnic cracks are surfacing everywhere.rnIt nebulously aspires to the end of history,rnalthough history has already takenrnits revenge, notably in Eastern Europe. Itrndreams about the convivial get-togetherrnof patchwork guys from Borneo, thernBronx, and the Balkans in a promiscuousrnmerry-go-round of global democracy. Itrnscreams for respect of human rights,rnwhile disrespecting ethnic rights. Moreover,rnthe divine left has replaced itsrnintellectual Mecca. It once pilgrimagedrnto Moscow and Havana; today it travelsrnto its new global Damascus, called NewrnYork and Paris.rnCharges of communist and fascistrnsympathies leveled by the divine leftrnagainst the European New Right flyrnin the face of truth. In many of hisrntheoretical treatises, Benoist has demonstratedrnthat fascist racism is the offshootrnof modern egalitarian schizophrenia.rnAccording to Benoist, modern anti-rnSemitism is a typical egalitarian pathology,rnwhich refuses Jews their Othernessrnby attempting to level them to thernegalitarian Same. By the same egalitarianrntoken, global democrats aspire tornsuppress the Other by advocating “globalrnmarkets” and by turning every distantrnpeople into a hybrid Americanized shopping-rnmall species. The divine left and itsrnsocialist-liberal clerks operate like a reactionaryrnfall-out, endlessly using andrnabusing abstract notions of democracyrnand human rights without ever situatingrnthem in a specific ethnic and historicalrncontext.rnSome have also catalogued Benoistrnand the New Right as anti-Americanrnwriters. Benoist, just as many other pastrnand present European cultural conservatives,rnis anti-American insofar as hernscorns the leveling American consumerism,rnthe obsessive desire for globalrnmessianism, and the retreat from therntragic. They all bitteriy regret the passingrnof true American federalism and thernvanishing days of the last American hero,rnwho once displayed the unsurpassablernJack Londonian will to self-surpassment.rnIn a modern world of yuppie speculation,rncoupled with the dictatorship ofrnwell-being, there is no more ruggedrnShumpetarian individualism and therntrue ante bellum community. ModernrnAmerican individualism has given birthrnto the self-centered hoarding of a happyrnfew, who engage in vicarious pity for therndistant poor of faraway antipodes. ThernAmerican divine left and its liberalrnacolytes love to talk about the rights ofrnblacks and Hispanics, as long as the latterrndo not knock on their brass gate orrncome close to their swimming pool.rnModern European conservatives are criticalrnof the mindless hedonism of thernyuppie political class, which citherrnbenevolently or malevolently has turnedrnthe erstwhile American dream into arndemonstrable nightmare.rnTomislav Sunic is a former professorrnof political science at JuniatarnCollege in Pennsylvania. He currentlyrnworks for the Ministry of Foreign Affairsrnin Croatia.rn42/CHRONlCLESrnrnrn